


Twin Crimsons

by 13thSyndicate



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Chapter 101+ spoilers, Feels, First Person, Gen, M/M, TW casual mention of self-harm, Zeno reminisces, b/c zeno, zeno can't help but compare them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 06:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8194736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13thSyndicate/pseuds/13thSyndicate
Summary: "Every time I look at her, I see him."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EHyde](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/gifts).



Every time I look at her, I see _him._ Red hair, the same color as a blood-dawn sky. Soft violet eyes that reflect the gentle warmth of a hearth when happy and the violent heat of a bloody sun when angry. I count the ways that she reminds me of him and I bite my tongue so hard it bleeds. No scales appear when I bite my tongue, so no one suspects. No wound can hurt even my soft and scaleless insides, either, so even if I bit it all the way off from the beautiful wonderful pain of having this opportunity, there’s no chance of any harm coming to me.

‘Miss,’ I say, ‘miss, miss, miss’ because her name is _wrong_ and it’s so easy to make a slip and call ‘my king’ or ‘king Hiryuu’. So easy to make a slip and reach out to touch her hair or her shoulder, to run a hand across hers because I’ve forgotten it’s not his and the others aren’t them and sometimes, looking at her, I feel so _old_ because ages have clouded my eyes so that I’m seeing the wrong face.

She laughs and spins around, teasing us, just like he did once. Ah, and Hakuryuu blushes, and Seiryuu pretends to be above it all, and Ryokuryuu joins in and makes fun of all the others and I laugh and it’s so easy, so so easy, just to _forget._ I remember when we all started using each others’ names. I remember how much Abi’s face lit up, Shuten’s grumbling about becoming too familiar with children and idiots.

I remember his smile and his gentle teasing that we were more like brothers now after all… I remember shyly glancing away from eyes that saw perhaps a little too much.

I remember when we stopped using names, because remembering a lavender gaze was too hard for all of us. I remember when formality was easier than sharing pain.

I don’t say anyone’s names anymore. I remember how often ‘Shuten’, ‘Abi’, ‘Guen’ want to slip off my tongue.

I remember how easy it is to exchange ‘King’ for other things, things that would not be wise to call our new princess.

Wind flutters through my scarf and through Yona’s hair and for a moment I am blinded by crimson light pouring forth into my soul, and I feel my heart surging forward tomeet that light. But I look up and it isn’t him. It’s the wrong light. It’s the right light but the wrong lamp. It distorts the flame and I have to look away until I forget why I’m not looking at the source of the beautiful crimson.

He is gone. The feeling of a hand on mine, the solid back that was always protecting, never letting me protect. The soft carress of… of lips, of silk sheets on skin.

They are all gone.

My brothers.

My king.

I am all that remains.

“Zeno!

A voice calls out and my eyes jerk upwards. A crimson light pours forth. I cannot make this one sad. He lives inside of her, doesn’t he? And perhaps, while things will never be the same… perhaps, though the sun has set on the crimson dawn of my memory… perhaps a new light isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Memories settle into my soul.

“What were you thinking about, Zeno?” she asks, curiously, and there is an echo that makes me bite hard again – but not so hard I taste blood this time. Perhaps I, too, am finally growing up.

“Ah, Zeno was just thinking about the sky,” I say with a brilliant smile, and it’s true. The sky at dawn.

I want to see the day she is dawning over.

**Author's Note:**

> So someone was complaining about the lack of Zeno/Hiryuu and I thought, "I could write about how much Zeno misses Hiryuu" and then I tried and this is what happened. I like it? But at the same time it's not what I thought it was going to be when I started.


End file.
